Sterile and clean or sterile and contaminated - how clean is a dental implant?
Principal investigator
The growing number of failed implantations has revealed a major problem of contamination of dental implants (metal and ceramic) from well-known manufacturers, even though they meet very strict international quality standards. The results are worrying, as inorganic and organic substances have been found on the surfaces of the implants in significant concentrations, which remain after the production process and are cytotoxic, neurotoxic, carcinogenic and allergenic. Any contamination poses a potential risk to the patient's health as it can enter the bloodstream and organs such as the brain, liver and kidneys. One of the ways to achieve satisfactory cleanliness of the implant is to form a protective layer on its surface. In the 2021 study "Aluminum from dental implants as a potential trigger of Alzheimer's disease: how to prevent aluminum dissolution?", coatings based on bisphosphonates and collagen were successfully produced on the surface of a commercially available implant with impurities (aluminum and fluorine) (HAZU support). The continuation of the study focuses on (i) investigating the effectiveness of the coatings formed in protecting the surface of the implant from dissolution and the release of potentially hazardous ions and (ii) their bioactivity - the ability to form bone cells around the implant. The problem brings together a team consisting of a doctor of dentistry from the Petković Polyclinic and chemists from the Ruđer Bošković Institute. The research is carried out using a sophisticated technique of atomic absorption spectroscopy and an in vitro study of implant-cell culture interactions. By comparing the results for the unmodified, "classic" implant and the coating-modified implant, the potential risk to the patient's health during the average implant lifetime of 10 years and the time required for complete osseointegration of the coating-modified implant will be assessed.